Covid precautions poster - should we have one on gn?

Liz46, ‘I’m fine now I’m all jabbed up’.
Frightening that many will have this attitude. Maybe this is the aspect that gn could concentrate on with some reminders. The vaccine doesn’t stop us catching the virus and therefore spreading the virus. It just takes the pressure off the NHS as we’ll be less ill. It will hopefully suppress the virus to give us time to come up with better treatments.

If you hadn’t mentioned it I wouldn’t have noticed that somebody just out of hospital went out and about. One would follow instructions from hospital and if told that their Covid test was negative and they don’t need to isolate, then they wouldn’t.

BlueSky
You’re right, it’s worrying that people are being discharged from hospital, having tested negative and then being told no need to isolate. Mum picked up the Covid in hospital, which is not an uncommon occurrence apparently. When I was discharged I isolated completely apart from my husband who has was looking after me. I was nowhere near well enough to go out anyway, because although I was no longer in danger, I was not at all well. I’m recovering now three and a half weeks on, but it’s going to take time to get back to normal.
I think people who are on non Covid wards in hospital should be told to isolate for at least a week when they leave hospital. Unfortunately hospital is a place where it is easy to pick up Covid even though not on a Covid ward.

Gosh maddy what a story I obviously had no idea the hospital tests were so useless
My son was telling me today about a quarantine hotel in NZ where a young lady left after 12 days quarantine with a negative test but two days later she was positive so I guess that’s the same sort of thing She must have picked it up in the hotel then came out only to find the twelve days quarantine had been an expensive but pointless procedure

BlueBelle I’ve also heard about people quarantining for the required amount of time, testing negative, but then developing symptoms and testing positive after they’ve just left quarantine. The varying lengths of time before showing symptoms and becoming ill is one of the problems with this virus. I was three days only after my husband brought the virus home, and then I started to feel ill. Mind you, I was another two weeks before I became ill enough to be admitted to hospital.

My son in law is a doctor and picked up Covid through his work. He realised he’d caught the virus because he developed symptoms, but the first two tests he did said negative. He self isolated with his family anyway as he knew he had the virus, but only the third test finally confirmed he was positive.

This is one of the problems in restricting the virus. If a test says negative, many people accept that, and if they’ve got no symptoms, why wouldn’t they?

In our part of the country - and I am sure we are not alone - people were being discharged from hospital hurriedly, such was the demand for COVID beds, and frequently still too ill to be capable of being self isolating. .

DH came home from hospital and needed care and help with everything for several weeks. Any idea that he could self-isolate, even at home, would have been quite out of the question.

I went to hospital for day investigations twice. I found these procedures very safe but each time I isolated afterwards as a precaution to others, although as a day patient I didn’t need to, but had a PCR test prior to going.

A staff member told me that she has a rapid flow test twice a week. They are quick and cheaper, but not accurate enough. I assume they use PCR tests before discharge, I hope so.

Monica there are obviously exceptions.
My husband self isolated with me, just to be on the safe side, as I too needed support.
I hope your husband is making progress.

Well I'll be blowed! All of a sudden I have no problem getting Waitrose slots for home delivery. I did wonder why, but word is that all the older people who have been vaccinated are going out to get their shopping now. The footfall in the supermarkets has noticeably increased.

Monica
When I was discharged from hospital I isolated because I was still too unwell to go out or do anything. Like Marydoll my husband isolated with me and took care of me. I had been in hospital with Covid anyway so I wasn’t tested before I left. Apparently Covid patients frequently test positive long after their ability to infect anyone has gone, but anyway it was impossible for me to leave the house. Even now I’ve only walked to the end of our small close, and I went for a ride in the car last week to pick up our grandchildren from school (childcare bubble) as their parents were working. My husband fed and bathed them before taking them home. As their parents have both had Covid and we have too, we felt it was safe to do this.

It is indeed impossible for everyone discharged from hospital to totally isolate. My mother has carers going in and a weekly cleaner. She cannot look after herself and needs her carers, and this is of course true of many people. However these people are not going out and about as they are housebound.

I think this could have been the problem with all the sad deaths in care homes back in the spring.

Hospitals up and down the country were desperate for beds, not knowing how bad the situation was going to get. If care home patients had tested negative at the point of discharge but were in fact still infectious, it’s easy to see how the virus spread so easily in that sector.